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Crash came on rookie controller's watch
By Times staff and wire reports
© St. Petersburg Times, BRADENTON -- An air traffic control trainee was staffing a radar screen at Tampa International Airport last Nov. 16 when an Air Force F-16 jet fighter collided with a small Cessna aircraft, killing the Cessna pilot. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, quoting documents obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration, said the trainee and a senior controller were working the area south of the airport when regional controllers in Miami called about a flight of two F-16s they were trying to turn over to Tampa. At that time, neither Tampa controller knew what Miami was talking about because Miami had given the lead military pilot the wrong frequency to contact Tampa. After trying once and failing to reach Tampa controllers, the military pilot gave up and switched to visual flight rules, setting his transponder at 1200, the standard VFR code. Since the area of the crash is a busy practice sector for general aviation, there often are many planes there displaying the 1200 code on radar monitored by controllers. When the trainee finally identified the military jets at a flight level of 2,000 feet, the supervisor told him to call the Cessna and warn the pilot of traffic in his area. The trainee did so, according to the documents, but it was too late. The Air Force wingman collided with the Cessna and both aircraft crashed. The Cessna pilot, Jacques Olivier of Citrus County, died. The pilot of the downed F-16 ejected safely. The military jets were off course by more than 40 miles at one point and out of contact with all controllers, although they flew through airspace both at Tampa and at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, where regulations require them to be in contact with controllers at all times. They were flying nearly 200 mph faster than they should have been at low altitude. Last March, after its own investigation, the Air Force accepted most of the blame for the collision but said Tampa controllers had enough time to move the Cessna out of harm's way. The Air Force said nothing about the presence of a controller-trainee. Joe Formoso, head of the Tampa local of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, angrily rejected any blame for his controllers, saying they had only 19 seconds to react to the situation and could not have done anything to prevent a collision involving a jet fighter closing on a Cessna 172 at nearly 500 mph. On Friday, Formoso added that having a trainee on radar was "absolutely not a contributing factor" in the accident. "The trainee did everything he was told to do," Formoso said. "He did everything right. The outcome would have been the same no matter who was working. It was not the controllers' fault."
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From the Times state desk Lucy Morgan
From the state wire
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